Joseph Grado and his wife, Susan Grado, embrace while staying at a shelter for fire victims at East Avenue Church, Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, in Chico, Calif. They lost their Paradise home in the Camp Fire. The shelter is staffed by a doctor and nurses from Feather River Hospital, who are volunteering despite being fire victims themselves.

Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press

Messages are shown on a bulletin board at The Neighborhood Church in Chico, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018. Numerous postings fill the message board as evacuees, family and friends search for people missing from the northern California wildfire.

Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press

Wildfire evacuee Greg Gibson looks for information about his missing neighbors at The Neighborhood Church in Chico, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018. The fire exploded so quickly, Gibson said, that he first noticed the bottom of a shed burning about one-quarter of a mile from his house and by the time he reached the home he shares with an elderly woman, the fire was on all sides. He helped his 79-year-old roommate into her car and they fled.

Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press

Linda Rawlings, a wildfire evacuee, sits outside a hotel in Corning, Calif., after finding out that her home in Magalia is gone.

Marcus Yam, Los Angeles Times via TNS

Jessica Sijan, whose family is from Paradise and lost everything to the Camp Fire, volunteers to sort out clothes for evacuees gathered at a Walmart parking lot in Chico, Calif., on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018.

John Locher, The Associated Press

News reporters stand in an area burned by a wildfire, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Paradise, Calif.

Marcio Jose Sanchez, The Associated Press

Capt. Adrian Murrieta with the Los Angeles County Fire Dept., hoses down hot spots on a wildfire-ravaged home Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, in Malibu, Calif. Scores of houses from ranch homes to celebrities' mansions burned in a pair of wildfires that stretched across more than 100 square miles of Southern California, authorities said Saturday.

Frederic J. BROWN , AFP

Katherine Marinara and her son Luca find what they came back to look for, old family photographs, at their burnt down house resulting from the Woolsey Fire on Busch Drive in Malibu, California on Nov. 13, 2018. - At least 44 deaths have been reported so far from the late-season wildfires and with hundreds of people unaccounted for the toll is likely to rise, as thousands of weary firefighters waged a pitched battle against the deadliest infernos in California's history. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Frederic J. BROWN , AFP

TOPSHOT - Katherine Marinara and her son Luca return to their fire-ravaged home along Busch Drive in Malibu, California on Nov. 13, 2018, as they search for belongings. - At least 44 deaths have been reported so far from the late-season wildfires and with hundreds of people unaccounted for the toll is likely to rise, as thousands of weary firefighters waged a pitched battle against the deadliest infernos in California's history. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

John Locher, The Associated Press

Sarah Gronseth kisses her dog Branch in the bed of a truck in a parking lot, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Chico Calif. Gronseth, a teacher, evacuated some of her high school students in her truck as the fire bore down on the high school in Paradise, Calif. She lost her home in the fire.

Marcus Yam, Los Angeles Times, TNS

LA County firefighter Battalion 13 Captain Victor Correa helps put out hotspot in a neighborhood razed by the Woolsey fire on Harvester road in Malibu, Calif., on Nov. 12, 2018.

An air tanker drops water on a fire along the Ronald Reagan (118) Freeway in Simi Valley, Calif., Monday, Nov. 12, 2018.

Kent Nishimura, Los Angeles Times, TNS

Firefighters working to put out hotspots in and around structures destroyed by the Woolsey fire watch as a plume of smoke rises from near the Chatsworth reservoir in West Hills, on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Los Angeles, Calif.

Calvin Alagot, Los Angeles Times, TNS

A helicopter battle the Woolsey wild fire in the hills above Pepperdine University in Malibu, Friday, Nov. 9, 2018.

John Locher, The Associated Press

A sign stands at a community destroyed by the Camp fire, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Paradise, Calif.

John Locher, The Associated Press

Members of the Sacramento County Coroner's office look for human remains in the rubble of a house burned at the Camp Fire, Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, in Paradise, Calif.

Marcus Yam, Los Angeles Times, TNS

Residents watch from their roofs as firefighters stop the forward progress of the Peak Fire which temporarily affect traffic on the 118 freeway in Simi Valley, Calif., on Nov. 12, 2018.

John Locher, The Associated Press

A spiral staircase stands in the remains of a burned out home from the Camp Fire, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, in Paradise, Calif.

Noah Berger, The Associated Press

Sheriff's deputies recover the remains of a victim of the Camp Fire on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, in Paradise, Calif.

Paul Elias, The Associated Press

Cathy Fallon sits near her dog Shiloh, a 2-year-old golden retriever, whose face was burned in the fire in Paradise, Calif. Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. Shiloh needs veterinarian treatment. But she can't leave her property because authorities won't allow her to return to Paradise, since the entire town is still under an evacuation order. Fallon and Shiloh are spending nights in this horse trailer because the family home burned.

John Locher, The Associated Press

Krystin Harvey, left, comforts her daughter Araya Cipollini at the remains of their home burned in the Camp Fire, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, in Paradise, Calif. The blaze that started Thursday outside the hilly town of Paradise has grown and destroyed more than 6,700 buildings, almost all of them homes, making it California's most destructive wildfire since record-keeping began. But crews have made gains and the fire is partially contained, officials said Saturday.

Noah Berger, The Associated Press

Abandoned cars, scorched by the wildfire, line Pearson Rd. in Paradise, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. Not much is left in Paradise after a ferocious wildfire roared through the Northern California town as residents fled and entire neighborhoods are leveled.

Noah Berger, Associated Press file

FILE- In this Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, file photo flames consume a home as the Camp Fire tears through Paradise, Calif. Credit rating agency Moody’s on Monday estimated that insured losses for the three current fires will be between $3 billion and $6 billion. The staggering price tag is due in part to the size of the fires but also the costs of rebuilding, both materials and labor.

John Digby was on the phone with his son when there was a knock at his door in Paradise. The 78-year-old was in bed sick, unaware of the raging inferno outside, so he didn’t get up to answer it.

Hours later, Roman Digby called again to see if his father’s health had improved. Static met him on the other end. He tried the police, to no avail.

The younger Digby then searched “Paradise” on Google and learned that a wildfire had taken the town. He realized the knock on his father’s door must have been a neighbor urging him to evacuate.

His worst fear was confirmed Wednesday when he got a call from the coroner: His father — like 55 others — had perished in the blaze, which started a week ago. The Camp fire death toll increased when search crews recovered eight more bodies in Paradise.

“He was loved and he’ll be missed,” Digby said of his father. “He was a very kindhearted man.”

Others who fear their loved ones dead, authorities said, may never know for sure. About 130 people remain unaccounted for. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said family members interested in offering a DNA sample could do so — it could help investigators identify the remains.

More than 460 people, along with 22 cadaver dogs, are involved in recovery efforts.

Since they began collecting names of those missing, investigators have found more than 200 people safe.

“I think that’s a pretty positive number,” Honea said.

As of Wednesday evening, the deadliest wildfire in state history has destroyed more than 10,300 structures and scorched 138,000 acres in Butte County. It was 35% contained, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials.

As crews strengthened containment lines around the fire’s footprint, public health officials were dealing with another problem at an evacuation shelter in Chico, a city near Paradise.

A norovirus outbreak was confirmed at Neighborhood Church, where about 200 evacuees are staying, said Lisa Almaguer, a spokeswoman for the Butte County Department of Public Health. She did not know how many people were ill but said that the sick have been separated from the healthy.

Such outbreaks are “not uncommon” in relatively small spaces where lots of people are living, she said. Shelter staff members are working to clean handles, counter tops and anywhere else the virus might be.

Elsewhere, some residents built their own makeshift resource center for those displaced. In the Walmart parking lot in Chico, people brought a variety of food items, including enchiladas and pastries. A man made patties out of a large tray of ground beef. Another served homemade minestrone.

There was an area for pets, with dog beds and pet food piled high.

Maggie Missere, 61, and her partner, Michael Crowder, 64, spent five days sleeping in their truck in the Burger King parking lot with their dog, Coco.

Missere has heart problems and had difficulty living out of the truck. So earlier this week, they headed to Walmart for a tent and met a pastor who set them up with donated supplies.

On Wednesday afternoon, the couple sat outside their red tent, clutching mugs of coffee while Coco slept on a new bed beside them. By the afternoon the camp had swelled with more than 100 people. Many had pets with them.

“You can’t go hungry here,” Missere said.

The couple’s home in Magalia is still standing, but they haven’t been allowed back.

“I feel relieved that we have a home,” Crowder said. Many of their friends weren’t so lucky.

Crowder has been overwhelmed by the support at the camp. The couple spent most of what little money they had on hand before the fire on fast food when they were sleeping in their vehicle. On Wednesday, a man walked up and gave Crowder $60 in cash, bringing him to tears.

Soon after, two middle-school-aged girls walked up to the couple, one with a tray of patties and the other with the fixings including mustard and pickles.

“See? They just come to you,” Missere said. “It’s like being at a restaurant.”

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